NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iCapital Network, the financial technology platform democratizing alternative investments for high-net-worth individuals and their financial advisors, today announced that Morgan Stanley Investment Management (NYSE: MS) has invested in the company’s latest funding round as part of a broader commercial relationship. Morgan Stanley’s investment, together with investments from UBS Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: UBS) and lead investor BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), brings iCapital’s total funding to date to over $50 million.
iCapital’s online platform offers investors and their advisors access to select alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity funds. The platform is powered by iCapital’s end-to-end technology solution, which automates the unique subscription, administration and reporting processes of these investments and allows the high-net-worth community to bypass the complicated procedural hurdles that often come with private investments. The firm will use this latest capital infusion to further enhance its platform as both an operational solution for the wealth management community and as a conduit between high-net-worth investors and capital managers.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management plans to leverage iCapital’s proprietary technology and services both to access advisors and their clients and to streamline and automate aspects of their private fund operations, thus reinforcing the global bank’s commitment to providing the most efficient, innovative solutions to its financial advisors and clients.
“Our strategic partnerships represent industry confidence in iCapital’s technology-led approach to solving the long-standing obstacles that prevent individual investors from accessing institutional-caliber investments,” said Lawrence Calcano, Chief Executive Officer of iCapital Network. “We are honored to work with companies like Morgan Stanley who believe in and work toward our mission of democratizing access to alternative investments.”
“Endowments and pension funds have long embraced alternatives as an important component of their overall investment programs. Many high-net-worth investors, in our view, are under-allocated to alternatives relative to their institutional counterparts,” noted Dan Simkowitz, Head of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “iCapital’s technology and investment platform successfully removes many of the operational impediments that high-net-worth investors face when seeking to increase their commitments to these strategies. In doing so, we believe that iCapital has significantly improved the client experience for individual investors and those who serve them.”
About Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Morgan Stanley Investment Management, together with its investment advisory affiliates, has more than 581 investment professionals around the world and $435 billion in assets under management or supervision as of June 30, 2017. Morgan Stanley Investment Management strives to provide outstanding long-term investment performance, service and a comprehensive suite of investment management solutions to a diverse client base, which includes governments, institutions, corporations and individuals worldwide. For further information about Morgan Stanley Investment Management, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im.
About iCapital Network
iCapital Network is a financial technology platform that provides modular alternative investment solutions for registered investment advisors, broker-dealers, private banks, family offices and other sophisticated investors. The state-of-the-art online portal offers a curated menu of private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds, along with extensive due diligence support, an automated subscription process and integration with a wide range of custodial platforms and reporting packages. The firm’s customizable technology and specialized suite of services is also used by asset managers and financial institutions to streamline and automate their private fund operations. As of June 30, 2017, iCapital had surpassed more than $2.25 billion in private fund subscriptions for more than 3,500 investors across more than 45 funds and maintained an investor network of more than 1,800 registered entities overseeing more than $1.7 trillion in investable assets.
For additional information, please visit iCapital’s website at www.icapitalnetwork.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/icapital-network-inc | Twitter: @icapitalnetwork | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/icapitalnetwork/.
Disclosures: This material is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as, and may not be relied on in any manner as legal, tax or investment advice, a recommendation, or as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to purchase or a recommendation of any interest in any fund or security offered by iCapital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Alternative investments are complex, speculative investment vehicles and are not suitable for all investors. An investment in an alternative investment entails a high degree of risk and no assurance can be given that any alternative investment fund’s investment objectives will be achieved or that investors will receive a return of their capital. The information contained herein is subject to change. Securities may be offered through iCapital Securities, LLC, a registered broker dealer, member of FINRA and SIPC and subsidiary of Institutional Capital Network, Inc. iCapital is a registered trademark of Institutional Capital Network, Inc. All rights reserved.
